


An Im-Poe-rtinent Question

by MalcolmInSpace



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: I love that that tag is already A Thing, Poe Dameron Being a Little Shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-03
Updated: 2016-05-03
Packaged: 2018-06-06 06:06:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6741913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MalcolmInSpace/pseuds/MalcolmInSpace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wedge is trying to give a speech on the first day of flight school, but Poe gotta Poe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Im-Poe-rtinent Question

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DesertVixen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/gifts).



> That is a terrible pun for a title and I'm not sorry.

They were young.  Painfully young.  They were always young, or at least they had been for a long time.  Every time Wedge got up in front of another class of nuggets - would-be fighter pilots at the Republic Fleet Academy – to give a start-of-year speech he couldn't believe how young they looked, and thus how old they felt.  He also never got used to how they looked at him, like he was more than human.  It was unnerving.  Mostly he just missed all the friends who hadn't made it this far. 

There was one nugget in particular that caught his eye, a handsome and irrepressibly cocky looking young man who looked naggingly familiar.  He kept looking back to the youngster throughout his speech.  The young man had that air of cheerful invulnerability about him that Wedge had seen so many times through the years.  He was pretty sure he'd never been like that, no matter what Wes and Hobbie might have said.  Finally, he wrapped up his speech (it was a minor variation on the same speech he'd been giving for years now), and asked if there were any questions. Unsurprisingly, the young man was the first to stand. 

"It's an honour to hear you speak, General Antilles, sir," the young man said.  He had a natural grasp of military protocol... then it clicked.  Wedge knew that face.  Shara Bey's son, Poe.  Wedge suppressed a smirk.  The instructors were going to have their hands full this year.  "But I think the question that we all really want to ask you is," Poe continued, "is what's your advice for flying inside a giant Imperial war machine?" 

The class giggled and Poe, who had clearly been looking for exactly that reaction, grinned widely.  Wedge waited for the giggles to subside, and then leaned forward on his podium, deliberately signalling he was relaxing the usual discipline – not that pilots, much less trainee pilots, cared much for discipline outside the cockpit.  "The truth is, the real truth, is that the best advice for flying inside a Death Star or whatever other insane construction we'll find next, is the best advice for any situation: stick by your wingmate.  Stick together.  Defend each other.  Fight for each other."  He could see the nuggets leaning forward, caught up in the sincerity of his tone.  "The truth is that it was the way we flew together and sacrificed for each other that was the ultimate undoing of the Empire.  Luke was able to destroy the first one because Biggs Darklighter and I were on his tail.  Biggs died and I almost did.  And the only reason Lando Calrissian and Nien Numb and I were able to destroy the second one is because a whole lot of pilots, including your mother, Cadet Dameron, risked their lives and died to clear the path for us."  He smiled to relieve the tension.  "But, really, I don't think we'll be seeing any more Death Stars.  Even as stubborn as the Dark Side can be, I doubt anyone would be short-sighted enough not to learn from what happened at Endor and Yavin."


End file.
